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Page 37
"I mean that I see to my own maids and keep my own accounts and suchlike. I do not know how to pass the days in idleness, sewing and singing. Yet Joanna's position, by virtue of her dower, will place her in just such an estate. If I keep her here, she will only learn my ways."
"They are best," Ian said definitely.
"I think so, too," Alinor agreed. "When you do your own accounts, no one cheats you. But I remember that when I went to court I almost died of boredom from having nothing to do."
"You will not send Joanna to court!" Ian exclaimed.
"No, of course not, but I think I will send her to Isobel. She has the fine art of doing nothing and enjoying it."
"Not yet."
"Not yet?" Alinor echoed, bristling a little. She thought he was concerned for the shadow that lay upon William, the Earl of Pembroke, and that he thought she had not sufficiently considered her daughter's safety.
"I have a great value for Lady Isobel. She is kind, gentle, and loving; clever, too, but if God had not given her William Marshaloh, I mean Pembrokefor a husband, she would be nothing."
"There is more in Isobel than you see."
"Perhaps. You know her better than I, but that does not change my feeling. Joanna is very like Simon. She has a seriousness and a deep desire to do right. Young as Joanna is now, Lady Isobel might implant too deeply the conviction that obedience is always right."
"Ian!" Alinor smiled archly. "You! You who have loud and long bewailed my headstrong nature, right to my face. Do I hear aright? Do I hear you advising me against teaching Joanna obedience?"
"Hellcat!" Ian laughed, but then he sobered and shook his head. "If Joanna were Adam and Adam Joanna, I would agree with all my heart. Nothing will make Adam believe obedience is a virtue, and even if he

 
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